“Migration means life and progress; a sedentary lifestagnation” — that was how the world’s first migrationresearcher, Ernest George Ravenstein, saw the matter inthe 19th century when he formulated his “Laws of Migration”.At that time Europe had already experienced twocenturies of emigration and had colonized parts of theNew World. Today European integration and economicdevelopment are increasing the mobility of EU citizens.And the continent’s prosperity is making it increasinglyattractive for people from other regions of the world.

Nearly all of the EU countries, as well as Norway,Switzerland, and Iceland, have growing immigrant populations.In 2006 there were some 28 million foreignnationals living in the 27 EU member states — that is,close to six per cent of the overall population. First-andsecond-generation migrants who have already assumedthe citizenship of their new home country are estimatedto account for a share roughly as large as the first-namedgroup. Even before 2004 all 15 original EU memberstates had becomes countries of immigration. Today themost attractive nations for migrants are countries thatwere themselves once emigration regions: Spain, for instance,where the number of non-nationals grew nearlyeightfold between 1995 and 2006. Or Italy, where thefigure tripled, and Ireland, where it doubled. Finland andPortugal report having roughly 80 per cent more nonnationalsthan they had in 1995.